Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club - MAARC

06/19/2026

Some catchup for today.

On 3 June we had an article on the Sparton Nocturne radio, to which John C Wise commented "Looking at the tube line up used in this "NocTurne" radio, no wonder Bill Engstrom said, "It is one of the most powerful sets I have ever heard." I have two restored consoles a GE E-105 and a Travler 112 with the same basic tube setup and just as powerful; with RF stage, mixer/osc, 2 I.F.s and the GE has a single ended output 6L6 and the Travler 112 has push-pull 6V6's. BTW: you can see pictures and schematics (I made) of the Travler 112, I worked on at this weblink: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/travler_112.html" Geoff Shearer had this to add: "In 1997, while we were living in Albuquerque, Ed Sage invited Wendy and I with our daughter Becky, to view his collection of mirrored radios. He had four Sparton Nocturnes; two in blue, one in Old Rose (peach), and one in black. The black one came out of Atlanta, GA. Of note was his comment as we were leaving: "Becky is the only child I've allowed in my house". He had observed her at club meetings and knew she wouldn't touch anything. When Ed went into assisted living, his collection was auctioned off to pay for his expenses. The Blue Birds sold for $52,000 and the Peach one $57,000. Pictures attached of my Spartons." When asked how many different chasses were used in those radios, Geoff added: "The Sparton radios are all standard with their schematics found in Riders. However!, the chassis in Mir-Ray, Reflections of Hollywood, Cord, and all those "One Offs" are not in Riders and even with the Mir-Rays, they have different chassis amongst themselves." Thank you John and Geoff for your comments.

On 4 June we had an article on how the amateur radio community missed an opportunity when the citizen band radio craze exploded in the 1970's. John C Wise again had a comment: "Yes! The Radio Amateur Ham operator crowd and ARRL really missed and ruined an excellent opportunity to win over CB'ers. That can help explain why they are dwindling in numbers today, besides the average Ham operators are over 60 years old. Well if wasn't for the Morse Code requirement (at the time) you would have attracted more of the CB'ers over to being Ham operators. Still resent that code requirement and the attitude the Ham crowd had toward CB'ers, calling it the Children's Band."

On 5 June we had an article on radio station WLS - the Sears sponsored “World’s Largest Store.” Ed Lyon replied "Yes, I heard WLS broadcasts in about 1936 or ’37 before the WW2 era when most of their performers on that station went into the service. I still have several of their picture-filled magazines about their staff, their performers and programs, and general news about the country. They tried to treat all the listeners as members of their family. One member of their “family” was George Gobel, who went on after the war to join the crowd of radio and TV comedians, and he performed several times on Johnny Carson’s late night TV show. His humor was clean and subtle, like “and when I visited the NBC offices in New York, it was like being at a black-tie affair and being the only guy in the room wearing brown shoes.” Thanks Ed.

Also on 5 June we had our banquet as part of our RadioActivity event. Our guest speaker, Jim Cross, gave us an interesting biography on Elmer Cunningham, one of the least recognized individuals in the vintage tube market. Robert Lozier stated "The only thing that I would have enjoyed seeing is some of the great advertising employed by Cunningham. For example, I have this neat standup sign circa 1924 (see photo).

On 10 June we had a post on Marian Croak who was instrumental in the development of Voice Over IP. Paul Hart, who worked in the telephone arena, had this to say. "Marian Croak was not an outsider when the decisions were made between two different protocols under consideration for transmitting voice over the Internet. She was part of the Bell System's many activities in deciding how to best transmit voice over the Internet. She held over 200 patents and worked at Bell Labs for over 30 years.

"Born May 14, 1955, Croak was raised in New York City. She credits her lifelong interest in technology to her father. Though he had only an elementary school education, he built her a chemistry set that led to her early exploration of the sciences. Croak grew up entranced by the inner workings of plumbing, electricity, and other home-related maintenance. Her career is defined by the desire to fix broken systems, just like the technicians she viewed as a child. She attended Princeton University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1977 and received a PhD from the University of Southern California in Social Psychology and Quantitative Analysis. Her education pointed her toward Bell Labs where she worked for three decades".

The above from Wikipedia. Below is another link that will tell you more about her and give a better balanced view of her contributions to the science of communications - she may still be at Google.

The more you learn about her, the more admiration you have for a black woman of incredible genius who played such a decisive role in the development of modern communications. All you have to do is to do a search on Marian Croak and VoIP and do some reading.

https://magazine.viterbi.usc.edu/fall-2020/alumni/sending-your-voice-over-the-internet-some-called-it-a-toy-not-marian-croak/" Thanks Paul.

On 12 June we had a post on one of the first Army field artillery computers, to which Ed Lyon commented: "Reminds me of the artillery computers used since WW1 aboard ships, like battleships and cruisers. By the time of the Viet Nam war, these computers were commonplace even on destroyers. They were analog, not digital, and by WW2 they added in the contribution provided by radar observation of targets. They originally worked by inputting range-finder data and magnetic or radio compass readings. They were all made by the Ford Instrument Co. (not Henry Ford, but Hannibal Ford). There was a Radio Age front-page article on them a few years back. Title was something like “The Mechanical aspect of computers”."

I did a check - it was entitled "The Mechanical View of Electronics" on page 1 of the January 2021 edition of "Radio Age". Thanks Ed.

Finally, on 14 June we had the quiz on opamps, which inadvertently included a photo too fuzzy to read. That said, Honorable Mention goes out to Ed Lyon for the high score. As mentioned, it did prove a useful tool for learning more about opamps. John Foell added this: "I used a lot of op-amps in my radio and Phase-Locked Loop work. I also have one of the Philbrick tube op-amps - mainly for show - size/power comparison, etc. Anyhow, when I was in college (early 1970s) some wag took a box of Wheaties, removed the cereal from the bowl shown on the front of the package and replaced it with a picture of a pile of op-amps (in milk), with one on the spoon. The tagline read "Op-Amps - The Breakfast of Champion Engineers". It was in the EE Lab for years. Pretty good parody - and before Photoshop!" Thanks John.

That's it for catchup. Any comments?

06/18/2026

A brief post for today that addresses a huge line of today's vintage electronics. It comes to us again from the "At The Controls" page, this time contributed by Sean Brady. It is about Konosuke Matsush*ta [1894-1989] founder of Panasonic, Matsush*ta, National, and Technics, shown here in 1964.

Born in Wakayama prefecture. At the age of nine, he went to Osaka by himself and worked as an apprentice in a hibachi store and a bicycle shop, and later worked for Osaka Electric Light Company (now Kansai Electric Power Company). In 1918, at the age of 23, he founded Matsush*ta Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works (reorganized in 1935 as Matsush*ta Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.). He founded the Peace, Happiness, and Prosperity (PHP) Institute in 1946 and the Matsush*ta Institute of Government and Management in 1979. He died in 1989 at the age of 94.

Tim Wirtz commented that "Many of their early products were under the name National. In the US, National was already a trademark for a different company so they called equipment in the US Panasonic."

What is your favorite vintage electronics product? Mine is a linear tracking Technics turntable that I got for a very good price - free (see photo).

06/17/2026

Today's post provides some computer history. It comes to us from the "At The Controls" page, was prepared by Michel Talbot, and is entitled "A Computer Called George."

Programmers Loretta Kassel and William Snow (see photo) check a program of instructions at the supervisory console of the 40-bit GEORGE¹, an automatic electronic digital computer installed in 1957 at Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois.

Snow is feeding GAR code (George Assembly Routine² with macro-instructions) on punched paper tape through a high-speed Ferranti Electric photo-electric reader capable of 200 characters per second. Miss Kassel checks data coming from an automatically controlled IBM electric typewriter, a means of output used here to obtain results from the program.

GEORGE was a mostly transistorized version of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) architecture³ developed by John von Neumann with 20,000 transistors (70% of 2N393 type) and 6,000 diodes (1N191, 1N628, S55G) consuming 50 kW of power. GEORGE was composed of two hardware arithmetic units that worked concurrently, a fixed point unit⁴ and a floating point unit⁵, each with its own word length and instruction codes. The typewriter was modified for computer use by Soroban Engineering, Inc. GEORGE was the second of two high-speed digital electronic computers installed for the Argonne Applied Mathematics Division, replacing the earlier one called AVIDAC⁶. GEORGE was designed and manufactured in part by the Argonne Electronics Division. It had a 164,060 bit magnetic-core memory⁷ (4,096 words), and a magnetic tape.

One of the first applications was predicting the extent and danger of a radiation plume in the event of a nuclear reactor accident based on fluid dynamics codes⁸ incorporating mesoscale weather data predictions. The Argonne design differed from the Princeton prototype by including a greater variety of shift orders, overflow detection, and transfer of control on overflow, four floating point registers, and using magnetic core memory instead of Williams tube CRT memory⁹.

Footnote Links
1-https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61-g.html
2-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language
3-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAS_machine
4-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-point_arithmetic
5-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_arithmetic
6-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIDAC
7-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory
8-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_fluid_dynamics
9-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube

Reference
On the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument by Herman H. Goldstine, James H. Pomerene, and C.V.L.Smith 1954 44p (4.3 MB)
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ias/IAS_Final_Report_Jan54.pdf

Additional Michel Talbot inputs:
$250,000 buys you a hot computer in 1957 ($3 million in 2026), and it guzzled enough energy to power 40 homes!

The instruction set of GEORGE is similar to that of a Princeton IAS machine. Back then they called them "Orders". The term has military origins, first defined by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert when they built ENIAC for the United States Army in 1945.

Unlike for most other computers of that era, "GEORGE" was not an acronym, it was named after the popular idiom "𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒕," which was often said when a person did not want to perform a task themselves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_George_Do_It_(radio)

George console, the central processing unit is the cabinet with the glass doors in the background (see photo).

George computer internals (see photo). The machine had checking features, parity on input, output, and core memory and complete redundancy and dropout error correction on wide magnetic tapes. After Argonne worked out all the hardware bugs a year later, GEORGE eventually operated with an average effective time of about 90%.

Anybody remember the 'Computer Called George'? How about the expression "𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒕"?

06/16/2026

Save the Date! RadioActivity 2027 is now officially scheduled for 3-5 June 2027.

The overwhelming opinion of the RadioActivity 2026 attendees was that the Crowne Plaza Annapolis served as a very good venue for our big annual event. Issues, such as the challenges regarding guest room reservations (mis-information relative to room availability and incorrect phone numbers) and the hotel's restaurant being closed for lunch will be resolved. We will keep you informed as further details regarding the event are firmed up.

Our apologies go out to some of our followers regarding the poor image you may have gotten with Sunday's Opamp quiz. Some of the images were impossible to read. Hopefully, the quiz image you got with Monday's answers was clear enough to allow you to learn some more about opamps.

By the way, MAARC members can learn more on that subject by checking out Ed Lyon's excellent article, "Operating With Operational Amplifiers," in the July 2025 edition of our "Radio Age" club journal. Just go to the Members Only section of the website.

Oh, so you're not a MAARC member? There is an easy fix. Just check out our Membership page at this link: https://maarc.org/membership/

MAARC Members receive issues of our bi-monthly "Radio Age" journal, and are additionally provided access for viewing and printing electronic copies of the previously published "MAARC Newsletter" and "Radio Age" editions.

What kind of vintage electronic information can be found in our "Radio Age" articles? Just about anything you may want to know technically or historically on that subject. Check out the index available at this link:https://maarc.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/RadioAgeIndex/MAARC-Newsletter-and-Radio-Age-Index-1984-December-2025.pdf

If you have an interest in collecting, restoring, or understanding the history behind vintage electronics, then you should consider joining MAARC. Click Here to view or print a trifold flyer about the club.

06/15/2026

Today's post provides the answers to yesterday's Opamp Quiz, compliments of Mr. John Seginski, in the October 1969 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. The quiz read:

The numbered sentences and equations that follow refer to the circuits in the quiz photo. Test your knowledge of op amps by filling in the blanks.

1. Eout = ______

2. Gain = ______

3. Eout = ______

4. This is a ______ generator.

5. Gain = ______

6. This is a ______ voltage amplifier.

7. This is an ______

8. This is a ______

9. When switches are closed one by one, ______ are generated.

10. The outputs are ______.

Here are the answers. Comparing them with the photo will yield a better understanding of how opamps can be used:

1. The gain of an operational amplifier as shown can be determined by dividing the value of the feedback R f by the value of the input resistor R in. Therefore the gain of the circuit is 1000/500=2. Note that the input connects to the input terminal marked (-) and the output connects to the output terminal marked (+). The circuit is thus an inverting amplifier. Since the input is -5 volts, E out is +10 volts.

2. The gain of this inverting amplifier is also determined by dividing the feedback resistance (R f) by the input resistance (R in). Thus, gain=100/ 1000=0.1. Since the amplifier inverts, the gain is actually -0.1.

3. Operational amplifiers can be used to "sum" or algebraically add the voltages at their inputs. In this circuit, the gain of each input leg is one. The output voltage is the sum of the amplified inputs and is inverted. Thus E out is +6 volts.

4. Operational amplifiers can be used as current generators if the current in the feedback loop is utilized. The load must be connected into the feedback loop as shown in the circuit.

5. The gain of the voltage follower is one. The input impedance of this circuit is very high and the output impedance is very low. The circuit is noninverting.

6. Notice that E in connects to the input terminal marked (+) and E out connects to the output terminal marked (+). Therefore this is a non-inverting amplifier.

7. The circuit is an integrator because the effective output is that which appears across the capacitor.

8. The circuit is a differentiator because the effective output is that which appears across the resistor.

9. As the switches are closed one by one, the inputs are inverted and summed, one on top of the other in sequence, generating a positive staircase waveform.

10. The first of these two unity-gain amplifiers inverts the input signal. The second inverts the output of the first. Therefore, the outputs are balanced.

Following the answers with figure really helped me. I hope it helped you.

Did you score Honorable Mention?

06/14/2026

Today's post is one that will prove educational for those of us who are still learning about vintage electronics. You have probably heard the term opamp. Here is a 10-question quiz on the basics of operational amplifiers (aka op amps, or opamps).

A couple companies offered vacuum tube operational amplifiers which combined two or more tubes along with some integrated leaded biasing and compensating components, and had a tube socket pinout on the bottom for plugging into a standard socket. The GAP/R K2-W, produced by George A. Philbrick Researches (hence the GAP/R prefix - see photo) is an example. It was commonly advertised in electronics magazines of the era.

The first commercial solid-state opamp, the μA709, was introduced by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1963 (designed by Bob Widlar). Five years later they released the μA741, which was the most famous opamp of the era; it is still widely used today. One of my electronics circuit courses in college (c1987) used the 741 as the basis for analyzing integrated circuits, and in particular, opamps.

Today, just about everyone having any involvement knows the basic equations for calculating opamp gain for both inverting (Rfeedback/Rinput) and non-inverting (Rfeedback/Rgnd +1) configurations.

The ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio® "ARRL Extra Class License Manual" offers some relatively simple to understand information about opamps. Here are some excerpts from that.

"The operational amplifier or op amp is a high-gain, direct-coupled, differential amplifier that amplifies dc signals as well as ac signals. Direct-coupling means that the circuit’s internal components and stages are connected directly together without blocking, coupling, or bypass capacitors, so that it works with dc and ac signals in exactly the same way. The input to a differential amplifier is the difference between two input signals. Op amps were originally used in analog computers for performing mathematical operations such as multiplying numbers and extracting square roots; hence the name operational amplifier.

Operational amplifiers have two inputs, one inverting and one non-inverting, as shown in Figure 6.5. Signals connected to the inverting (labeled –) and non-inverting (labeled +) inputs result in out-of-phase and in-phase output signals, respectively. Because it is a differential amplifier, the op amp amplifies the difference between the signals at its two inputs, regardless of the absolute voltage level at either input — it is only the difference that matters.

A theoretically perfect (ideal) op amp would have the following characteristics: infinite input impedance, zero output impedance, infinite voltage gain that does not vary with frequency, and zero output when the input is zero. Because of this, the characteristics of op amp circuits are controlled by components external to the op amp itself. These criteria can be approached in a practical op amp as described in the following paragraphs. The voltage gain of a practical op amp without feedback (open-loop gain) is often as high as 120 dB (1,000,000). Op amps are rarely used as amplifiers in the open-loop configuration, however. Usually, some of the output is fed back to the inverting input, where it acts to reduce and stabilize the circuit gain. The more negative feedback that is applied, the more stable the amplifier circuit will be.

Op amps make excellent, low-distortion amplifiers. They can be used to make oscillators that generate sine, square, and even sawtooth waves. Used with negative feedback, their high input impedance and linear characteristics make them ideal for use as instrumentation amplifiers that amplify signals for precise measurements.

The op amp’s high gain amplifies the difference between the voltages between its inputs. Applying negative feedback causes the op amp to attempt to drive the input difference voltage to zero. The op amp’s high input impedance allows current into or out of the inputs to be ignored. The usefulness of these two negative feedback concepts — input difference voltage driven to zero and no input current — will become apparent as we derive the gain for the simple inverting op amp circuit in Figure 6.7. (The circuit is inverting because the input and output signals are out of phase.)

The op amp’s high gain forces the voltages at the inverting and non-inverting terminals to be approximately equal. Since the non-inverting input is connected to ground, the voltage at the inverting input will be forced to ground potential, no matter what the value of the circuit input and output voltages (as long as they are within the power supply range). Maintaining one input at ground potential without a direct ground connection is called a virtual ground. Voltage gain for the inverting op-amp circuit in Figure 6.7 is determined solely by R1 (the input resistor) and RF (the feedback resistor). In order to maintain the inverting input at ground potential, any input current I in = V in / R 1 must be balanced by an equal and opposite feedback current I f = –V out / R f, so amplification (A v) = R f / R 1.

Op amp circuit gain is generally stated as a magnitude (|A v|) and either as inverting or non-inverting. This dependence only on external components makes computing circuit gain easy.

A standard operational amplifier can act as a comparator by connecting the two input voltages to the noninverting and inverting inputs with no input or feedback resistors. If the voltage of the noninverting input is higher than that of the inverting input, the output voltage will be driven to the positive limit. If the inverting input is at a higher potential than the noninverting input, the output voltage will be driven to the negative limit. External resistors generate a reference voltage, VSP, called the setpoint or threshold to which the input signal is compared. Thus the comparator changes its output state depending on whether the unknown voltage is above or below the threshold."

Well, I have to admit, that is kind of like taking a sip from a fire hose, but on to the quiz.

That versatile building block, the operational amplifier, is the mind-spring of much of today's most advanced electronic equipment (remember, this quiz was from the late 1960's). In computers and automatic control systems, for example, they are indispensable, and they can be made to function in a number of different ways - precision voltage sources, current sources, and voltage adders, to name only a few.

The operational amplifier, or op amp, is an extremely high-gain amplifier with a very high input impedance. The actual gain of a specific circuit is determined by feedback resistors connected around the amplifier. Various characteristics can be achieved, generated by connecting other components and other op amps in the circuit. The numbered sentences and equations that follow refer to the circuits in the quiz photo. Test your knowledge of op amps by filling in the blanks.

1. Eout = ______

2. Gain = ______

3. Eout = ______

4. This is a ______ generator.

5. Gain = ______

6. This is a ______ voltage amplifier.

7. This is an ______

8. This is a ______

9. When switches are closed one by one, ______ are generated.

10. The outputs are ______.

Hopefully, you score Honorable Mention.

06/13/2026

A brief post for this Saturday on tube testing. It comes to us from, of all places, the "Tube Tester" page as provided by Jay Riedl. But first, a little understanding on the mathematics behind the term Mutual Conductance (Gm), the unit of measurement used to quantify vacuum tube amplification. Alan Douglas, in his fine book "Tube Testers and Classic Electronic Test Gear" defines Gm as follows:

"Mutual conductance, a term coined by Alan Hazeltine in 1917 and later known as transconductance, is a measure of a tube's actual amplification: the ratio of change in plate current to the change in grid voltage which caused it. Conductance “G” is the inverse of resistance R and is measured in mhos (now properly called Siemens). If by Ohm's law R = E/I, then G=I/E. The practical unit for vacuum-tube work is the millimho or micromho; while in Europe valve transconductances are commonly given in terms of mS, or mA/V, milliamperes per volt."

Understanding this leads us to Jay's post.

"I have been working really hard the past couple of days to understand how tube testers measure transconductance. Because I am a hobbyist and not an engineer, sometimes the fundamentals elude me. Today I was able to see the math working in real time. I used my Hickok RD-1700 (see photo) tube analyzer because it has multiple outputs, as well as an actual micromho meter. Doing a Gm test on a 6AK5 tube, I used the tester’s oscilloscope scope output to calculate the change in plate current, relative to the grid input signal. Simultaneously I measured the grid input signal using my Fluke True Root Mean Square (RMS) digital multimeter (DMM) (see photo). Here were my readings…

27mV RMS (Plate) / 12 ohms (Shunt) = 2.25mA (Plate)

0.517V (Grid)

2.25mA (Plate) / 0.517V (Grid) = 4.352 mA/V * 1000 = 4,352 uMHOs

This is pretty much where the needle of the analog micromho meter was pointing on my tester! This is the first time I was able to confirm the accuracy of my micromho meter on the RD-1700. I have digital meters to confirm all of the other voltage and current values. It is also the first time I saw the math in action and working!"

A few years ago I purchased and restored a Fairchild 6200B curve tracer and configured it to run the curves on vacuum tubes. Using the same mathematics, I was able to compare the Gm of a 6L6 tube using the resulting curves with that of the known Gm of the tube as determined using Paul Hart's Jagundo tester (see photo).

For more information on my curve tracer, click on this link: https://maarc.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Monthly_Mtg_Presentations/Curve_Tracer.pdf.

For more information on Paul Hart's Jagundo tester (which he more appropriately called the 'Haywire Tester' in the presentation), click on this link:https://maarc.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Monthly_Mtg_Presentations/Inside_Tube_Testers-062614.pdf

06/12/2026

Today's post combines some computer and military electronics history. It comes to us from an "At The Controls" page as authored by Michel Talbot.

"America’s Artillery Supercomputer

The fully transistorized 35-bit M18 Field Artillery¹ Digital Automatic Computer (FADAC²) was a general purpose 95 kg portable computer designed for solving gunnery problems³ of tube artillery, free rockets, and missiles. The 700 watt computer was manufactured in 1960 by Amelco (Teledyne Systems, Inc.,) and North American—Autonetics under the sponsorship of Frankford Arsenal.

Consisting of 2,190 transistors, 14,430 diodes, 9,080 resistors, and 740 capacitors, it was the World's first semiconductor-based digital field-artillery computer fully ruggedized for use in the field, enabling the solution of artillery support computations related to surveying, counter battery, fire planning, flash and sound ranging, reduction of meteorological data, and master control and programming for automatic checkout of missile systems.

Using a keypad, the user could manually enter target location, powder temperature, gun location, and meteorological data. Alternately, data could also be loaded automatically using the built-in 700 char/sec eight channel paper tape reader. The data was then stored on a 4,096 word magnetic disk that spun at 6,000 rpm.

The 0.448 MHz central processor could calculate at an astounding rate of 128,000 fixed-point⁴ operations per second and its built in differential equation solver calculated external ballistics⁵ of projectile motion from firing to impact, output was displayed on 16 nixie tubes in decimal form showing gun orders comprising deflection, quadrant elevation, fuse time, and charge.

Footnotes:
1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_artillery
2- https://www.ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61-f.html
3- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_data_computer
4- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_point_(mathematics)
5- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_ballistics

References:
America’s Artillery Supercomputer by Stefan Nikolaj, June 18, 2022 https://snikolaj.com/.../americas-artillery-supercomputer/
Presentation on the Field Artillery Digital Automatic Computer, 49 pages, January 1965 https://books.google.mk/books?id=mfse514lSzEC&pg=PA7..."

Portable? At 95 kg (that's 209 pounds)? Only 104.5 pounds each for a two-man carry.

06/11/2026

Today's post got its start out of the "Tidbits" section of the June 1993 "MAARC Newsletter" providing us some background history on JVC.

"JVC is a major Japanese consumer electronics company. Those three letters stand for Japan Victor Company. Many years ago JVC was owned by RCA Victor. When JVC gained their independence from RCA they retained the rights to use the famous Victor Nipper dog logo. Today Nipper is one of the best-known corporate logos in Japan.

When JVC's management recently wanted to acquire a new building in Tokyo's Ginza district, they insisted on buying the building at number 28. Why? Because in Japanese, the number 28 is pronounced "ni-pah!"

So, that prompted me to research a little history on JVC. A Google search yielded the following: "Founded in 1927 as a subsidiary of the American Victor Talking Machine Company, JVC (Japan Victor Company) evolved from a phonograph maker into a global electronics giant. It revolutionized the home entertainment industry in the 1970s by inventing the VHS format and later merged with Kenwood in 2008.

The Analog Era and Early Innovations (1920s–1960s)

1927: Founded in Yokohama, Japan, initially focusing on manufacturing phonographs and records.

1939: Successfully manufactured Japan's first locally produced television receiver.

1953: Matsush*ta Electric (Panasonic) acquired a majority stake in JVC, a partnership that lasted over five decades.

1959: Developed the two-head helical scan video tape recorder, laying the foundation for modern magnetic video recording.

The VHS Revolution (1970s–1980s)

1976: Released the HR-3300, the world's first Video Home System (VHS) recorder. This sparked a fierce "format war" against Sony's Betamax.

1984: Introduced the GRC-1, the first-ever all-in-one VHS-C pocket camcorder.

Digital Transition and Merger (1990s–Present)

1990s–2000s: While JVC continued to innovate in digital displays, audio technology, and projection, the rise of DVD and digital media caused financial strain as VHS demand plummeted.

2008: Matsush*ta sold its remaining stake, and JVC officially merged with the audio equipment manufacturer Kenwood Corporation to form JVC Kenwood Holdings.

2011: The iconic "Victor" brand (including the famous "His Master's Voice" logo) was retired for consumer electronics in Japan and replaced by the global JVC name. (Victor Entertainment continues to use the legacy name for music and luxury hi-fi).

And that lead to a little research on Nipper. "Nipper was a real-life English dog in the 1880s who became an international icon after his owner’s brother, English painter Francis Barraud, painted him curiously listening to a wind-up sound machine. The famous resulting artwork and slogan became one of the most recognizable logos in entertainment history.

The Origin of the Painting

Nipper (named for his habit of biting the backs of visitors' legs) was a mixed-breed dog born in England in 1884. When his first owner, Mark Barraud, passed away, the dog was taken in by Mark’s brother, Francis Barraud.

Francis noticed that Nipper would often sit in front of the family's Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph, cocking his head in a puzzled way as if trying to understand the sounds coming from the horn. Years after Nipper died, Francis was inspired by this memory and painted the dog looking intently into the machine. He titled the original painting "Dog Looking at and Listening to a Phonograph".

Becoming "His Master's Voice"

Francis Barraud tried to sell the painting to the Edison-Bell Company, but they rejected it, reportedly claiming, "A dog doesn't know what it’s listening to".

Looking for a buyer, Barraud eventually took the painting to The Gramophone Company in England in 1899. Executives there liked the artwork, but they agreed to purchase it and the accompanying slogan on one condition: Barraud had to paint over the original phonograph and replace it with their brand's newer Gramophone model.

The Gramophone Company acquired the painting, the trademark, and the catchy phrase "His Master's Voice" for 100 pounds.

How It Was Used for Advertising

The image transformed the fledgling recording industry by giving consumers an emotional, human connection to the brand. It was meant to convey the extraordinary clarity of the gramophone's sound, implying it was lifelike enough to fool a devoted pet into believing its dead owner was in the room.

As the recording industry expanded globally, the image was licensed across different companies:

HMV (His Master's Voice): The Gramophone Company (later EMI) used the logo extensively. It eventually became the name of a major international chain of record stores.

Victor Talking Machine Company: Used the image extensively in the United States, cementing the logo in the American market.

RCA (Radio Corporation of America): RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1929. Nipper became one of RCA's most recognizable mascots.

Specifically, with regard to Nipper and JVC:

1943 (World War II Secession): As hostilities rose between Japan and the U.S., the Japanese division officially seceded from RCA. JVC became an independent Japanese company and kept the "Victor" name and "His Master's Voice" trademark for use within Japan.

1990 (HMV Retail Enters Japan): The British music retailer HMV opened its first stores in Japan. However, because JVC exclusively owned the Nipper/"His Master's Voice" intellectual property rights in Japan, HMV was prohibited from using the famous logo or full slogan. As a result, HMV used the letters "HMV" but adopted a stylized gramophone as their brand image.

The Modern Era: Today, JVCKenwood holds the rights to the "His Master's Voice" trademark in Japan, primarily utilizing it for premium audio products and Victor Entertainment.

To this day, the Nipper logo remains a staple of 20th-century branding, and "Nipper" memorabilia—from stained glass windows to giant fiberglass statues—is widely collected.

Back in the day, probably around 1970, my dad came home one day with a stereo JVC solid-state combination amplifier/receiver, thereby relegating the old tube-based Harmon Kardon amplifier to our rec room in the basement. Nobody seems to know whatever happened to either of those amplifiers, but we always had one or the other cranking out tunes.